Parlez-vous Francais, Maple Leafs?

Maple Leafs’ Carl Gunnarsson and Canadiens’ David Desharnais give chase earlier this month. If the teams meet in the playoffs, Toronto players will be “rusty” with their French. (Ernest Doroszuk/Toronto Sun)

The perception is the Canadiens will be in the tougher spot if they draw the Leafs in the first round and the same holds for the hard-working francophone media when it comes to dealing with Toronto players.

While all the Quebec-born Habs are fairly bilingual, a glance around the Leaf room came up with no obvious French-speaking players, the last of whom left town when Montreal native Matthew Lombardi was traded at the start of the year. Dion Phaneuf’s name has French heritage, but he’s from Alberta, and while Mikhail Grabovski and Ryan O’Byrne played for the Habs, they didn’t soak up enough language skills to handle an interview.

“I’m quite rusty,” laughed O’Byrne, who played there between 2007-10.

But mes amis, here comes Mark Fraser, who was raised in Ottawa and answered the ‘parlez-vous Francais’ query.

“I think I’m the only guy,” Fraser said. “I wouldn’t say I’m fluent, but just from being in Ottawa, growing up near Quebec and having a lot of francophone friends ... I’m better at understanding it, though not speaking it.

“But I haven’t done a French interview before. I wouldn’t very comfortable.”

BOZAK'S NUMBER A HIT

Tyler Bozak never thought accepting an awkward hockey number such as 42 would have some historical significance.

But the centre is getting lots of attention the past few weeks with the release of 42, the biopic of Jackie Robinson’s struggles to break the colour barrier in baseball. Bozak took a special interest when the picture was released, as he is a huge baseball fan and pals with Blue Jays catcher J.P. Arencibia among others).

“I haven’t seen the movie yet,” Bozak said before the Leafs went to Florida. “But I get lots of tweets about it because I have the same number. I love sports movies and it’s obviously a pretty inspiring movie for what Jackie Robinson did for baseball and for the sports world in general.

“I’m curious to find out what he went through during it all, what he had to deal with. And it’s got good reviews. Growing up in Canada, the Jays were always on TV. I got to like baseball from there. Getting to know some of the guys on the team and spending some time with them makes you follow it a little more.”

In 1997, Major League Baseball universally retired 42, the only league to have made such a gesture other than the NHL for Wayne Gretzky’s No. 99. But Bozak didn’t seek 42 when he came to the Leafs for 2009-10 training camp.

“I wanted 21, which I wore in college (Denver), but it was taken,” Bozak said. “As a rookie, I didn’t quite feel in position to ask for 21, so the team doubled it and turned it into 42.

“I started to like it a little more and I stuck with it.”

ALL ORR NOTHING

There is no disputing that big, tough fourth liners Colton Orr and Frazer McLaren have played a major role in the physical edge the Leafs have brought to their game this season.

Whether it be leading the league in fights or hits, it has helped forge an identity that was missing under previous coach, Ron Wilson. So now that the big boys have helped muscle the team into the playoffs, will current boss Randy Carlyle cut back their impact?

“We thing there is a place for toughness in our lineup,” the coach said following Friday’s practice at the Mastercard Centre. “The toughness is in a different form at times in the playoffs. To say anyone is going to be in the lineup on a day-to-day basis? I’m not going to say anyone is going to be in the lineup on a day-to-day basis.

“They’ve earned the opportunity to play for our hockey club, they’ve been great teammates and they’ve defended the honour.”

CUT THE CHAINS

When Clarke MacArthur ended his 15-game scoring slump on Thursday, it was the best playoff preparation he could imagine.

The Leafs are going to need scoring from throughout the top three lines and the last thing the winger wanted to do was carry that weight into the post-season.

“It cut the chains off my back a little bit,” MacArthur said on Friday. “It’s not like I went 15 games without getting chances. But you get tired of getting asked about it and missing your chances, you just want to put one in. It was nice to score. It would be nice to get on a little run here, too.”

Parlez-vous Francais, Maple Leafs?

The perception is the Canadiens will be in the tougher spot if they draw the Leafs in the first round and the same holds for the hard-working francophone media when it comes to dealing with Toronto players.